Episode
High-Performing Leadership Teams Are Built, Not Bought
- Podcast
- The So What from BCG
- Published
- Feb 25, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1279
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Summary
What makes a leadership team truly high performing, and why does it matter for the entire organization? Judith Wallenstein, CEO Advisory Global Lead of BCG, and Khadija Ben Hammada, Chief People Officer of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, explore this topic and more. They share how CEOs can build executive teams grounded in trust, purpose, and psychological safety. When the top team clicks, the whole company moves faster and with more clarity. Learn more: https://lnk.to/so-what-general-show32 Learn More: Judith Wallenstein, Managing Director & Senior Partner, Global Lead, CEO Advisory https://www.bcg.com/about/people/experts/judith-wallenstein Khadija Ben Hammada, Member of the Executive Board and Chief People Officer for Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany https://www.emdgroup.com/en/company/management/executive-board/khadija-ben-hammada.html Subscribe to BCG’s YouTube channel: https://goo.gl/hsFsVT Visit us at https://www.bcg.com Chapters (00:00) Intro (00:17) How do you build a high-performing leadership team? (01:36) What makes a team work? (02:12) What does a high-performing team feel like? (03:45) How much of team success depends on the CEO’s behavior and decisions? (05:55) When hiring, what are you looking for — what’s the secret sauce? (08:47) What should the CEO–Chief People Officer relationship look like? (09:50) What did you learn as chief of staff that you apply on an executive team? (11:42) How do team members to elevate collective performance? (13:01) How should leadership adapt in an era of uncertainty? (16:35) How do you keep a team successful when key people move on? (19:27) What's steps should leaders take now to create a top-performing team? (21:03) Outro This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podtrac - https://analytics.pod…